Star in the Eye
Copyright © 2008
by James Shea
Fence Books
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Shea's compressed narration moves in logical jerks that result in
the delightful accretion of visual surprises. The speaker's
relationship to nature evokes a kind of eco-consciousness,
which resists slipping into clunky agitprop critique. Instead
the speaker of "Turning and Running" insists on a reappraisal of
[his conditional relationship to nature and concludes,
"There were at least four things / I should have said.
Do not step on the rug / with the live birds sewn into it." —
Douglas Piccinnini, Verse Magazine
The speaker of Star in the Eye is wide-awake in a
dreamscape, navigating an illustrated netherworld where the
"Plane's Controls Come Off in My Hands" and a love affair can be
distilled into the titles of unwritten haikus — all in the
same poem. Again and again James Shea brings us to the edge of
the unknown and points into the darkness, until our eyes adjust
and we see that he is pointing at himself, already there. These
poems make me wish I had the same dreams Shea has, and after
reading this book it seems possible — anything does. — Nick Flynn
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What the Critics Say
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